If a homeowner gets into a financial crunch, that shiny new Lexus might not seem like such a pressing need anymore.The economically troubled nations of Asia are facing a similar dilemma when it comes to the U.S. military gear they were planning to buy.Several have announced plans to slow down a handful of weapons purchases, and U.S. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen acknowledged concern about the situation during his recent two-week visit to the region.Defense...

It's a worn brick building surrounded by a well-used playground and basketball courts where most of the hoops are missing nets. But inside the Robinwood Community Center, youths and other residents can find a top-of-the-line computer laboratory with 10 19-inch flat screens, wireless Internet, printers and a projector. Northrop Grumman, the defense contractor based in Linthicum, installed the new computer lab Friday as part of its renovation of the center in the Annapolis public housing neighborhood.

NEW YORK -- Spurred on by the rocky political situation in Russia, investors are once again eyeing defense stocks after having spurned an industry that has suffered deep government cutbacks.Although still awaiting the outcome of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin's duel with Parliament -- which could result in impeachment proceedings beginning today -- some investors believe that the situation can only help military-oriented companies.Regardless of the outcome, Russia's political instability could demonstrate to lawmakers that a new world order has yet to take hold as much as had been hoped.

Hunter Manufacturing Co., a leader in the design and manufacture of security systems for military and homeland defense applications, has announced plans for a facility in Edgewood. The Applied Research Center will be a 6,800-square-foot site in Emmorton Business Park. The center will develop chemical and biological defense products and will provide consulting services. The facility will also be equipped with state-of-the-art laboratory and testing facilities and will provide product modeling and prototyping capabilities for filtration materials.

Whenever a resupply ship lashes up with a Navy vessel on the high seas and starts delivering fuel or boxes of corned beef hash, it uses the kind of equipment Dale Spencer and his 40 workers make at their shop in Stevensville.Their cargo slings, flexible hose fittings and high-pressure valves keep supplies and fuel flowing between two moving vessels on a heaving ocean.But the company, Hydrasearch Co. and Technical Products Inc., has felt a little seasick for the last few years. The Navy isn't slinging so much hash now that the Pentagon budget is at a prolonged ebb.Revenues are flat even though Hydrasearch has bought a competitor and doubled its product line, said Spencer, president and chief executive officer of the privately held company.

STUTTGART, Germany -- DaimlerChrysler AG's Dasa aerospace unit and Northrop Grumman Corp. said yesterday they might form alliances of several of their businesses in a bid to broaden access to each other's defense markets. Dasa is Germany's biggest aerospace and defense company, while Northrop is No. 5 in the United States. The companies signed a memorandum of understanding to study cooperating in businesses including radar, unmanned aircraft and surveillance systems. Northrop's radar business is based at its defense electronics unit in Linthicum.

From his office in Linthicum, George E. "Chip" Pickett Jr. can watch airplanes coming and going at nearby Baltimore-Washington International Airport. But he's always looking farther than that.The former Army intelligence officer is one of the defense industry's leading thinkers and strategists, peering into the future to help steer Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Sensors & Systems Sector through a period of complex changes.His vision for the coming year for the defense industry:More change.

GREENBELT -- Last month when President Clinton visited the Westinghouse plant in Linthicum, he promised $1.7 billion in federal money to help the nation's defense industry convert to new commercial markets."

The struggle between Martin Marietta Corp. and Northrop Corp. for control of Grumman Corp. has become a complicated affair of tactical moves, bidding procedures and stock market rumors, but it boils down to a simple fight for survival.As the post-Cold War Pentagon budget declines, there is increased pressure in the beleaguered defense industry for further consolidation.Martin Marietta and Northrop were put on a collision course when both adopted a strategy of growth through acquisitions. Each hopes that becoming a bigger, more diversified company will enable it to grab a larger slice of the shrinking Pentagon budget pie.The procurement part of the defense budget -- money used for the purchase of fighting machines like aircraft, tanks and rockets -- has dropped about 50 percent since its peak in 1985 and continues to decline.

Hunter Manufacturing Co., a leader in the design and manufacture of security systems for military and homeland defense applications, has announced plans for a facility in Edgewood. The Applied Research Center will be a 6,800-square-foot site in Emmorton Business Park. The center will develop chemical and biological defense products and will provide consulting services. The facility will also be equipped with state-of-the-art laboratory and testing facilities and will provide product modeling and prototyping capabilities for filtration materials.

STUTTGART, Germany -- DaimlerChrysler AG's Dasa aerospace unit and Northrop Grumman Corp. said yesterday they might form alliances of several of their businesses in a bid to broaden access to each other's defense markets. Dasa is Germany's biggest aerospace and defense company, while Northrop is No. 5 in the United States. The companies signed a memorandum of understanding to study cooperating in businesses including radar, unmanned aircraft and surveillance systems. Northrop's radar business is based at its defense electronics unit in Linthicum.

JOHN R. GALVIN has appeared on a number of national news shows recently, including ABC's "Nightline" and National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," trumpeting the benefits NATO.On the shows, he was identified as dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University or as the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.But what the news shows haven't told us is that Galvin is also a member of the board of Raytheon Co., one of the nation's top three military contractors and corporate father of the Tomahawk Cruise missile, more than 160 of which have inflicted death and destruction on the former Yugoslavia.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens is scheduled to announce today that three defense contractors are among the five companies that will use a Navy base on the Severn River after the Navy moves out in December. The moves will bring about 90 employees to the 42-acre David Taylor Research Center, a Navy research complex the U.S. government is turning over to the county for civilian use, according to a county news release. The transformation of the 75-building center on the north bank of the Severn across from the Naval Academy is part of a national cost-cutting effort ordered by the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act. Andrew C. Carpenter, spokesman for the county executive, said yesterday that Owens will announce the details of the leases the county is signing with the companies at a news conference at 2 p.m. today.

From his office in Linthicum, George E. "Chip" Pickett Jr. can watch airplanes coming and going at nearby Baltimore-Washington International Airport. But he's always looking farther than that.The former Army intelligence officer is one of the defense industry's leading thinkers and strategists, peering into the future to help steer Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Electronic Sensors & Systems Sector through a period of complex changes.His vision for the coming year for the defense industry:More change.

Bent on dominating every market it chooses, defense powerhouse Lockheed Martin Corp. said yesterday that it plans to purchase Comsat Corp. for about $2.7 billion to become a major force in global telecommunications.Between them, the two Bethesda companies handle every phase of the business -- from building satellites to launching them and then peddling their services.The deal is a complicated transaction that requires both federal approval and an act of Congress, but if completed would vault Lockheed Martin to the forefront of an industry it decided to pursue in earnest only last month.

If a homeowner gets into a financial crunch, that shiny new Lexus might not seem like such a pressing need anymore.The economically troubled nations of Asia are facing a similar dilemma when it comes to the U.S. military gear they were planning to buy.Several have announced plans to slow down a handful of weapons purchases, and U.S. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen acknowledged concern about the situation during his recent two-week visit to the region.Defense...

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks closed lower yesterday amid concern about a weak dollar and a decline in shares of defense companies."If the dollar continues to sell off, we will see more weakness in the bond market and in the stock market," said John Groveman, president at Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co.The Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.89, to 3,751.22, its fourth straight decline. Shares of United Technologies Corp. and Boeing Co. dragged the average lower after the Pentagon, in an internal memo, said it was rethinking some aircraft contracts.

The rapidly shrinking defense industry was rocked again yesterday when the Lockheed Martin Corp. announced that it will acquire the bulk of Loral Corp., the nation's fifth-largest defense contractor, for $9.1 billion.The move comes nine months after Martin Marietta Corp. merged with Lockheed Corp. to form the nation's largest defense and aerospace company, and five days after Northrop Grumman Corp. agreed to buy the Linthicum-based defense electronics arm of Westinghouse Electric Corp. for $3.6 billion.

Whenever a resupply ship lashes up with a Navy vessel on the high seas and starts delivering fuel or boxes of corned beef hash, it uses the kind of equipment Dale Spencer and his 40 workers make at their shop in Stevensville.Their cargo slings, flexible hose fittings and high-pressure valves keep supplies and fuel flowing between two moving vessels on a heaving ocean.But the company, Hydrasearch Co. and Technical Products Inc., has felt a little seasick for the last few years. The Navy isn't slinging so much hash now that the Pentagon budget is at a prolonged ebb.Revenues are flat even though Hydrasearch has bought a competitor and doubled its product line, said Spencer, president and chief executive officer of the privately held company.

Defense Secretary William J. Perry, a bookish-looking man with the public demeanor of a slightly distracted bureaucrat, walked into a Pentagon briefing room last month and set off a bomb in American industry.His announcement of two finalists to build the fighter plane of the future drove the third-place company, McDonnell Douglas Corp. of St. Louis, into its recently announced merger with Seattle's Boeing Co.This is something like the CBS television network surrendering itself to ABC, a dramatic reconfiguration of an edifice that seemed too big for such change.